This message I brought to the two Renmark Uniting Churches last Sunday.
I am an occasional lay speaker there.
The Dwelling Place of God
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| Renmark Uniting Church |
Many years ago, as a new Christian, I went to hear a
sermon at a mission being held in Adelaide with a Southern Baptist preacher as
the guest speaker.
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| Renmark West Union Church |
The night I went, I might have gone more than once,
but this one sermon left a lasting impression on me.
It was called “What’s right with the Church?”
I still have somewhere a very poor copy of the tape I
recorded that night.
This man was tall large and probably a texan.
He started off slowly and gently but wound up to a
crescendo.
Some of the old time southern Baptist preachers I
think you needed to fasten your seatbelts.
In the talk he really got home to me, or God actually
did, of how important the local Church is and how essential it is in the
greater scheme of God’s plans for humanity, for us as individuals.
In Church you will more than likely be in the only
place that you will actually hear the Gospel.
Hear the challenges that we need to hear about our non
Christian behaviour.
How we should live our lives as we make Jesus not only
our Saviour but our Lord.
So what is the Church, who is the Church and how relevant
is it today in this age when the Church is so ridiculed at times in the media?
We had read out earlier these words.
Ephesians 2:
“19 Now you are no longer
strangers to God and foreigners to heaven, but you are members of God’s very
own family, citizens of God’s country, and you belong in God’s household with
every other Christian.
20 What a foundation you
stand on now: the apostles and the prophets; and the cornerstone of the
building is Jesus Christ himself! 21 We who believe are
carefully joined together with Christ as parts of a beautiful, constantly
growing temple for God. 22 And you also are joined with him and
with each other by the Spirit and are part of this dwelling place of God.”
“The dwelling place of God!”
“20 What a foundation you
stand on now: the apostles and the prophets; and the cornerstone of the
building is Jesus Christ himself! 21 We who believe are
carefully joined together with Christ as parts of a beautiful, constantly
growing temple for God. 22 And you also are joined with him and
with each other by the Spirit and are part of this dwelling place of God.”
What does that mean?
The dwelling place of
God?
Surely God lives in
Heaven?
Well that’s the
popular notion and has some validity but-----------
Consider this.
Ephesians 4:4-6
“Jesus said the
Church is His body, that He is the life of the body.
“There is one
body,and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to
your call,
one Lord,
one faith,
one baptism,
one God and Father of
us all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
In light of this God
lives,
dwells in us,
the living Body of
Christ.
In many places today
it seems the life has gone out of the body.
In the early Church
all Christians were intimately and actively involved in the vibrant life of the
body..
Their witness to
unbelievers coupled with their deep love for each other rocked the Roman world.
And it must be so
again.”
I have been quoting
from inside the cover of the book called
“Body Life” by the late Ray Stedman.
He was a Church
pastor in California. The Peninsula Bible Church.
It is based on
principles outlined in Ephesians Chapter 4.
Apart from the Bible
this book and it’s message is one of the most life changing books I have read.
It tells how a local
church decided to reach out to their community with a view to re introducing
Jesus to their community in the way the early church did.
They did so in their
church by learning what it meant to be part of the body of Christ and thus what
were their(our) responsibilities as Christians.
This church, that Ray
Stedman had been called to be it’s minister, learnt that each Christian
according to the scripture, is given at least one spiritual gift.
Sometimes more than
one.
There are lists of
these spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12,(the most detailed list),Romans 12
and 1 Peter 4.
1 Corinthians 12:4-31
4 Now God
gives us many kinds of special abilities, but it is the same Holy Spirit who is
the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service
to God, but it is the same Lord we are serving. 6 There are
many ways in which God works in our lives, but it is the same God who does the
work in and through all of us who are his. 7 The Holy Spirit
displays God’s power through each of us as a means of helping the entire
church.
8 To one
person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; someone else may be
especially good at studying and teaching, and this is his gift from the same
Spirit. 9 He gives special faith to another, and to someone
else the power to heal the sick. 10 He gives power for doing
miracles to some, and to others power to prophesy and preach. He gives someone
else the power to know whether evil spirits are speaking through those who
claim to be giving God’s messages—or whether it is really the Spirit of God who
is speaking. Still another person is able to speak in languages he never
learned; and others, who do not know the language either, are given power to
understand what he is saying. 11 It is the same and only Holy
Spirit who gives all these gifts and powers, deciding which each one of us
should have.
27 Now here is
what I am trying to say: All of you together are the one body of Christ, and
each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it. 28 Here
is a list of some of the parts he has placed in his Church, which is his body:
Apostles,
Prophets—those who preach God’s Word,
Teachers,
Those who do miracles,
Those who have the gift of healing;
Those who can help others,
Those who can get others to work together,
Those who speak in languages they have never learned.
Prophets—those who preach God’s Word,
Teachers,
Those who do miracles,
Those who have the gift of healing;
Those who can help others,
Those who can get others to work together,
Those who speak in languages they have never learned.
29 Is everyone
an apostle? Of course not. Is everyone a preacher? No. Are all teachers? Does
everyone have the power to do miracles? 30 Can everyone heal
the sick? Of course not. Does God give all of us the ability to speak in
languages we’ve never learned? Can just anyone understand and translate what
those are saying who have that gift of foreign speech? 31 No,
but try your best to have the more important of these gifts.
Romans 12
6 God has
given each of us the ability to do certain things well. So if God has given you
the ability to prophesy, then prophesy whenever you can—as often as your faith
is strong enough to receive a message from God. 7 If your gift
is that of serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, do a good job
of teaching. 8 If you are a preacher, see to it that your
sermons are strong and helpful. If God has given you money, be generous in
helping others with it. If God has given you administrative ability and put you
in charge of the work of others, take the responsibility seriously. Those who
offer comfort to the sorrowing should do so with Christian cheer."
In our Church here,
we are the dwelling place of God.
Using the gifts God
has given us, we can and should fulfill our calling.
To tell others about
Jesus and manifest His love in this community.
A place to start is:
1.
Make sure we are Christians according to what the
scripture says.(5 things that man does, the rest is continued by God)
Recognise our sin. Believe Jesus is our only saviour
through His death and resurrection.Repent. Turn our backs on sin.Be Baptised.
Receive the Holy Spirit.(Receive Jesus)
2.
Decide we want to work together as the body of Christ.Build
each other up and support each other.
3.
Decide we want to share the amazing message of the
Gospel in our local community.
4.
Identify what our own individual spiritual gifts are.
(often our gifts can be found among the things that come naturally to us) Often
others may recognise our gift or gifts before we do. Use the lists for this.Ray
Stedman has good info on the gifts in his book and his tape library.
5.
Start using our God given gifts to reach out to
others.
When Lesley and I
were new Christians we had the privilege of having two fine Bible teachers as
our Pastors.
One was Harold Long
and the other was Frank Hunting.
They taught us many
things including about the gifts of the holy Spirit.
We did a whole series
of Bible studies on what we called Mutual Ministries including some of the
teaching found in Ray Stedman’s Body Life book.
Ray came and did a
Bodylife seminar in our Church back then.
I was unable to
attend but have listened to the tapes of those meetings many times.
We were so inspired
by what we learnt that we started using the gifts we thought we had.
I was asked to be the
leader of a new Youth Group.
The old one had
ceased to operate.
I was also given a
role as a Sunday school teacher with a small group of teenagers.
Lesley started up a
Kid’s Bible club in our home.
She used some
supplied material but also modified the teaching where she thought it
necessary.
The Kids Club grew to
the point where we had to move it to the local Scout Hall and then eventually
to the local Church of Christ.
There were two other
thriving kids Clubs in our Church family at the time and many home Bible studies started
up.
I heard Ray Stedman
talk about a young man who worked in the Post Office in Ray’s home town who
decided to start a work place Bible Study.
He thought he had the gift of teaching.
I was inspired by
this as I worked in the Post Office in Adelaide.
I started up a
similar group under the expert guidance of our two pastors.
The group met every Tuesday for
about 15 years until I left the organisation.
It was great blessing
to all of us who took part and became multi denominational.
Lesley and I have continued to regard
ourselves as Christians who exercise the Spiritual Gifts we discovered we had.
We now use our gifts
in ministering to residents of a nursing home.
This is not about us
boasting how good we are but about Jesus who lives in all Christians.
All Christians are
the dwelling place of God.
We are all equipped
with gifts for the Church to function properly.
Everyones' role in a
Church family is just as important as everyone else.
It’s about how we can
be part of God’s Body.
Part of His plan.
So do we in Renmark
want to go the way of so many Churches just close our doors eventually?
Or do we really want
to manifest ourselves as the dwelling place of God?
Do we want to be the
caricature or popular opinion of the church or the real thing?
A word of caution.
The studies on spiritual gifts can be the breeding ground of false doctrine.
We shouldn’t get too bogged down in discussions on
tongues,miracles and apostles.
The other gifts are
the important ones for this day and age.
For instant the gift
of Helps is a very important gift.
I have seen many in
both the Renmark Churches who have this gift.
The Church is the
dwelling place of God.
God lives also in the
Christian through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.
The early Church turned
the whole world upside down.
If we return to New
Testament Christianity, as it should be practised, there is no reason why the
town of Renmark cannot have a revival.
Does anyone here have
a heart to reach out to others with the Gospel?
The Good News?
One of the gifts you
will find listed in the NT is the Gift of Faith.
Faith means the
ability to walk in Faith, not by sight where we might say this situation or
that situation looks bleak,but to be able to see things through God’s eyes.
To see the possibilities.
To apply Faith that
works.
So do we know the
Dwelling Place of God ?
He lives here within
us.
Do we want to be
resuscitated?
Resurrected if you like?
New life surging
through our bodies and our Church.
In a moment we are
going to sing our closing hymn.
“The Churches one
Foundation”
Jesus!
We are His body.
Here in Renmark.
Waiting to be
renewed.
I quote again from
Ephesians 2:20-22 to close.
20 What a foundation you
stand on now: the apostles and the prophets; and the cornerstone of the
building is Jesus Christ himself! 21 We who believe are
carefully joined together with Christ as parts of a beautiful, constantly
growing temple for God. 22 And you also are joined with him and
with each other by the Spirit and are part of this dwelling place of God.”
Amen
NB. Below is a link to the late Ray Stedman's library of works and in particular his book Body Life.
https://www.raystedman.org/thematic-studies/body-life
Please note if you go the link you will find some excellent study guide questions that can be used as a congregation.
Please note if you go the link you will find some excellent study guide questions that can be used as a congregation.
